Sunday, 13 April 2014

When we saw the first coins from the Beau Street hoard, they
were all uncleaned and some of them were quite corroded. Sifting through them,
we were delighted to see a hippo, albeit a rather miserable looking one, on one
of the reverses.

one of the hippos on the coins

We fell in love with him and realised that a hippo, which is
happiest wallowing in the mud and water, was appropriate for a Bath coin,
having been excavated in the mud, and from Bath famous for its spring water.

The coin that features the hippo was issued by the Emperor Philip
I in 248 AD. This year was the 1000th anniversary of what the Romans
considered to be the founding of Rome by Romulus. As part of the anniversary celebrations many
wild animals were transported to Rome to be killed in gladiatorial and wild
beast hunts. Other animals represented on his coins include antelopes, wolves
and lions. But the hippo coins actually have his wife, Otacilia’s head on the
obverses; perhaps she liked the hippos best.

So with Beau we are remembering all the animals that died in
the name of “entertainment”.

Beau dressed as a Roman soldier

Look out for Beau and some of his cousins at our Beau Street
Hoard events over the next 15 months! And if you meet a hippo be sure to take a photo and share it with us on Facebook!

A delft hippo giving scale to some of the coins from Bag 7 of the Hoard

To find out more about Beau and all our coin related events
and activities follow us BeauStHoard on Flickr, Twitter: and Facebook

The Roman Baths at Night

The Roman Baths Bloggers

We are the volunteers, interns and employees of the Roman Baths. We started this blog to provide you with a behind the scenes glimpse of what goes on here at the Roman Baths. We will be writing about what is interesting and important to us from collections to activities and events.